Since I moved to Hanwell in West London, I’d always wondered if it really was possible to get to Birmingham along the canal. Thanks to Graeme Kafka, looking for a new challenge after completing all the Munros in Scotland and a motivation to do something for Evergreen Africa, a small grassroots charity doing great work in North Uganda, it was recently possible to fulfil this task and raise over £1900…
To be honest, a fundraising effort was well overdue for Evergreen – I was about to run half marathons in each of the seven emirates of UAE last summer but had to cancel the attempt due to problems registering a charity and in the end ran them for fun. Perhaps a story for another day but as well as finding some properly beautiful parts of the country and getting to run with some amazing groups like Dubai Desert Runners, Abu Dhabi Striders and of course Dubai Trail Runners, I also managed to get heat exhaustion but thanks to some very prompt action my members of DTR I was able to get to hospital and recovered on a drip!
So why Evergreen? I became aware of this charity through a friend of mine Connie Smith who is one of the trustees and realised that as well as the well publicised charities such as Action Aid, Save the Children and VSO, there are a wide range of smaller charities helping communities in some of the less well publicised parts of the world struggling after major humanitarian crises. I was impressed by Evergreen’s mantra of “tangible help not temporary hope” which means that they simply provide the locals with the seed funding or training to start their own sustainable employment allowing the benefits to remain in the region. We were fortunate to catch up with Paul Voltzenlogel, Executive Officer of Evergreen on our travels who was able to explain it all!
The challenge itself was essentially to run 5 marathons along the Grand Union Canal from Hanwell to the centre of Birmingham which we split into 4 consecutive days stopping at Marsworth, Stoke Bruerne and Daventry overnight. Although I am reasonably fit and Kafka is a 2hr 48 marathon runner, neither of us had run anything longer than 50km in a single day, and with carrying all our belongings, significant effort was going to be required!
Except for thunder and lightning on the second day, we were blessed with great scenery, nature and lots of support from other people along the canal. We both had our own problems- Kafka crippled by his IT band after the first two days and me using a whole tub of Vaseline to avoid the worsening of blisters which appeared everywhere after the first day! It was quite a mental challenge being out for 10-12 hours a day, which was a problem when there were different canal branches leading to Liverpool, Oxford and Birmingham!
As we ran into Birmingham, it occurred to me that it was a pleasure getting to do our own challenge on our own terms without having the pressure of raising £x for the cause. One of the main things that puts people off raising money for charity is the necessity to raise a certain amount of money to cover the fees of doing the activity, for example £2000 for running the London marathon. If we had raised £25 for Evergreen, it may have seemed like a disappointing return on running for 4 days but it would still be £25 more for Evergreen than it had the day before. A lot of people prefer to support causes in their own way so putting pressure on others to donate can lead to resentment- I felt glad that I could thank the people that sponsored but also feel grateful to those who offered words of support.
If you have a great idea then just get out and do it-by organising your own challenge you can push yourself to your limits but don’t have to worry who will support you along the way. If you have a sporting challenge or a personal fear/goal needing overcome and are looking for some inspiration to make it happen or a great cause to do it for then please get in touch since every £10 raised makes a massive difference to the work of grassroots charities such as Evergreen and we would be more than happy to help.